The mechanism of virus dispersal, especially viruses of organisms endemic to isolated “island” ecosystems (e.g. hot springs), are poorly understood and hotly debated. There is disagreement over whether virus species are cosmopolitan (Breitbart and Rohwer, Trends Microbiol 13:278, 2005) or show regional endemism. While some studies show sharp regional differences between virus genomes (Whitaker et al., Science 301:976, 2003), suggesting limited dispersal, several others have discovered global distribution of certain viruses with nearly identical genomes (Breitbart et al., FEMS Microbiol Lett 236:249, 2004; Short and Suttle, Appl Environ Microbiol 71:480, 2005). Given the importance of viruses in maintaining microbial diversity and recycling nutrients (Suttle, Nat Rev Microbiol 5:801, 2007), anything that affects virus dispersal will have a significant ecological impact.
One study has shown that local virus dispersal can result from aerosolization of the virus by hot spring fumaroles (Snyder et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:19102, 2007), suggesting that more distant spread is possible if the particles can reach the upper level winds (Smith et al., Aerobiologia 26:35, 2010). A limiting factor of wind-borne virus spread is the ability of the virus to resist drying; most viruses are very sensitive to desiccation (Ding et al., Gynecol Oncol 121:148, 2011; Fogarty et al., Virus Res 132:140, 2008; Nakano et al., Fish Pathol 33:65, 1998) and will rapidly lose infectivity in aerosol form.
Previous studies have shown that viruses can be coated with silica under simulated hot spring conditions (Laidler and Stedman, Astrobiology 10:569, 2010; Orange et al., Biogeosciences 8:1465, 2011). However, prior to the present disclosure, it was unknown whether viruses coated in silica retain infectivity or the capacity to induce an immune response in an infected host.